Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The Yogyakarta, East Java, West Java and Jakarta branches of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) have blamed the conversion of agricultural and residential lands for industrial and mining purposes for serious damage to the environment across Java Island.
Citing one example, Walhi Yogyakarta director Suparlan said that land conversion in Yogyakarta province had occurred along the coastal area of Kulonprogo regency. Provincial Bylaw No. 2/2010 on spatial planning rezoned the agricultural area as an iron ore mining site.
"This is a new style of colonialism because the mining project will disadvantage farmers," Suparlan told a public dialogue on Java Island's environmental conditions in Yogyakarta on Tuesday. He said that some 2,500 farmers in the region currently earned combined profits of Rp 5.6 billion (US$589,473) monthly.
Other possible land conversions in Yogyakarta, according to Suparlan, included the Southern Toll Road (JLS) development project that would pass through the province, cutting into the province's agricultural areas.
Husaini of the Society for Health, Education, Environment and Peace (SHEEP) Foundation concurred, saying that growth of high-tech industries in the six regencies of Blora, Grobogan, Jepara, Kudus, Pati and Rembang in Central Java threatened residents' safety.
"Worse is that the government is also planning to develop a steam-generated power plant [PLTU] and nuclear power plant [PLTN] in the Kendeng and Muria mountain ranges," Husaini said.
Ony Mahardika of Walhi's East Java branch also blamed rapid growth of industries and infrastructure in his province for the loss of 20,514 hectares of agricultural fields over the last few years.
"In fact, East Java had been producing 40 percent of the nation's total food output," he said, adding that an industrial project in the northern coastal area of Gresik regency was slated to further decrease the province's agricultural, horticulture and limestone hill areas by some 2,000 hectares.
Ony also said that East Java's 873 million barrels of oil reserves had drawn the oil industry to the region but many had neglected the boundaries of people's property. The livelihoods of the people in the surrounding area had been hard-hit as a result.
Ramdhan of Walhi's West Java branch said that between 1994 and 2005, 261,000 hectares had been converted from agricultural fields, forests and fish ponds into residential complexes, plantation and mining areas in his province. This, he said, had caused some 250,000 workers in the agricultural sector to lose their jobs.
In response, Barlin Abdurrahman, the head of the Environment Ministry's Java regional eco-management center, said that environmental damage was indeed a serious threat in Indonesia.
He therefore hoped that environment activists could keep reminding the government of the serious implications of environmental degradation, adding that land conversion was a complicated problem influenced by regional political dynamics.